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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

Chap. Copyright No, 

Slielt___,l5 2- 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



LIVING AND LOVING 



Qassics of the Quiet Hour. 

Selections for every day in the month. 

EDITED BY 

Francis E, Clark, D* D. 



Handsomely printed and daintily bound. 
Price, 25 cents each, postpaid. 



THE PRESENCE OF GOD. 

Selections from the Devotional Works of 
Bishop Jeremy Taylor. 
LIVING AND LOVING. 

Selections from the Devotional Works of 
Professor A. Tholuck. 

THE GOLDEN ALPHABET. 

Selections from the works of 
Master John Tauler. 

THE KINGDOM WITHIN. 

Selections from " The Imitation of Christ," by 
Thomas a Kempis. 



United Society of Christian Endeavor* 

Boston and Chicago. 



Classics of tije (&uiet f^our 



LIVING AND LOVING 

tectums from tfje JBebottonal OTorte of 

PROFESSOR Af* THOLUCK 

For Every Day of the Month 



Edited and with Introduction by 

FRANCIS E. CLARK, D. D. 

President of the United Society 
of Christian Endeavor 




UNITED SOCIETY OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR 
BOSTON AND CHICAGO 






& *^tf* 



The Library 
of Congress 

washington 



14402 



Copyright, i8g8 
By United Society of Christian Endeavor 




TWO COPIES RtCElVED. 

2nd COPYi V^ ^^ « 
1898. 



Colonial Press I 
Electrotyped and Printed by 
C. H. Simonds &* Co. 
Boston, U. S. A. 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 

Tholuck's Hours of Devotion .... 7 

The Centre of Man's Being 13 

The Hidden Manna 14 

The Best Moment 15 

The Everlasting Love 16 

Dreamers and Seers 17 

How God Speaks 18 

God's Bitter Cup 19 

God Great in Little 20 

God's Anointing ....... 21 

Beware of Excuses 22 

The Sick-chamber a Temple ..... 23 

One with Christ 24 

The Cure of Self-conceit 25 

God's Work and Ours 26 

The Sacredness of Solitude 27 

Conversing with God 28 

The Joy of Reconciliation 29 

What is Prayer? 30 

The Secret of Prayer .31 

The Temptation of Miracle-working ... 32 

The School of Patience 33 

5 



6 CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

The Pruning-knife 34 

How to Know God's Will 35 

The Beauty of Humility 36 

The Government of Our Lives .... 37 

A Christian's Rights 38 

Godlike Truth 39 

The Trivial Round . . . . . . .40 

Daily Toil a Preparation 41 

What Shall We Be 42 

No More Tears 43 



THOLUCK'S HOURS OF DEVOTION. 



Some authors exert a peculiar power upon their readers. 
Their books are no more learned or profound or witty or 
sparkling than the works of others, but they exert a fascina- 
tion which at first cannot be altogether explained. These 
books attract one like the eyes of a speaking portrait, which 
follow him about the room and rest upon him wherever he 
stands. 

If this power should be analyzed, I think it would be found 
that it is the heart quality of these books that lends to them 
their unusual attraction. They are written out of the heart 
of the author for the heart of the reader. They are not cold, 
mental abstractions. You would not say of them: " What 
a splendid work ! " " What a fine literary effort ! " In fact, 
they do not impress you as the result of effort. The ele- 
ment of labor is overshadowed by the element of inspiration. 
When you close the book, you do not say to yourself: 
" What a great mind has this author ! " " What a prodigious 
monument to his industry and his intellect is this volume ! " 
but, " What a great heart he has ! how much he loves ! how 
far he sees into the Unseen ! " 

Such a writer as this was Professor Tholuck, of Halle. 

Of all devotional writers, ancient or modern, I know of 
none that appeals more directly to the heart of his readers. 
None speaks out of deeper personal experience, or draws 
therefrom more refreshing draughts of comfort. The reason 
for this is plain, for, as he himself tells us, his " Hours of 

7 



8 LIVING AND LOVING. 

Devotion " were wrought out of his own personal and some- 
times bitter experience. 

While he wrote, he himself was upon the anvil, being 
shaped by many a blow for the Master's use. 

He writes not what he had learned from books, but what 
the great Graver had first written upon his own soul. 

He tells us that in his early life he had not thought of 
laboring in the field of devotional literature, but in the year 
1826, when bowed down both in mind and body by long and 
severe illness, he began to write meditations on passages of 
Scripture, chiefly with a view to his own consolation. This 
task, however, was never finished. 

A few years afterwards his eyesight threatened to fail him, 
and it was then, during the winter mornings and evenings, 
when he was prevented from using his eyes by candle-light, 
that, in quiet meditation, the plan of these " Hours of Chris- 
tian Devotion " was matured. 

Thus the genesis of this volume is another illustration of 
the way in which all things work together for good to them 
that love God. 

To lose his health, and then his eyesight, so that he feared 
he would be compelled to give up his professorship alto- 
gether, must have been a sore and grievous affliction to the 
good professor, but, during those hours of semi-darkness for 
mind and eye alike, God appeared to him; God's light shone 
upon his heart, his spiritual vision was quickened, he caught 
glimpses of God and his love and of the eternal world, that 
his undimmed natural vision would have never beheld, and, 
because of these hours of gloom and sadness and broken 
health and shattered hopes, he has put the whole world 
under a debt of gratitude such as it owes to few writers in 
all the centuries 

In later years, writing of the composition of this volume, 
he says : " At the time, the danger of being compelled to 
resign for several years, if not forever, my vocation as pro- 
fessor was constantly present in my mind, and, if a season 



THO LUCK'S HOURS OF DEVOTION. 9 

of affliction is not in general the most unfavorable for the 
production of a religious work, I may be permitted to indulge 
good hopes of the success of the present volume, as not only 
the original conception, but also the subsequent execution of 
it, occupied what were very grave hours in my life." 

In these days we are not accustomed to go to Germany 
for our most profoundly spiritual and devotional books. We 
look to the Fatherland for speculative philosophy, for theol- 
ogy and criticism, but not often for books that speak to the 
heart of the simple and unlearned Christian. Yet here is a 
profound theologian, a scholar whose accuracy and erudition 
are acknowledged by all the world, who writes in language 
that a child may read and understand, if his heart has been 
touched by the love of God. 

" The true theologian," declares Tholuck, " is he who, after 
climbing the ladder of science to a height at which he has the 
unclouded heaven in view, delights himself with gazing into 
it, and no longer thinks of the steps of the ladder save when 
employed in the friendly office of helping those at the foot to 
mount." 

Professor Tholuck evidently sought to realize his own high 
ideal of a true theologian. He mounted the ladder of the 
mere science of theology until he could look into the un- 
clouded heavens, and what he saw there, which it was lawful 
for him to utter, he has told to us, and has not wearied us 
with a constant obtrusion of the doctrinal rounds and philo- 
sophical rungs by which he climbed to his exalted view-point. 

In his preface to the English translation of his famous 
volume, he well expresses the frame of mind in which his 
book was written. " Like the pious Tersteegen," he says, " I 
thought with myself, If my God does not will as I do, I will 
as he does, and thus we always keep on friendly terms. 
I also sought to extract a gratification from those hours of 
bitter suffering, by presenting to Christian souls a fruit of the 
heart in place of a labor of the head. ... I have been 
young, but now am old ; I have spent a whole lifetime in 



IO LIVING AND LOVING. 

battling against infidelity with the weapons of apologetical 
science ; but I have become ever more and more convinced 
that the way to the heart does not lie through the head, and 
that the only way to the conversion of the head lies through a 
converted heart, which already tastes the living truths of the 
gospel." 

Tholuck's whole book is a commentary on this significant 
sentence. It is a book from the heart, of the heart, to the 
heart. 

My difficulty has been great in selecting a few pages which 
the compass of this little volume allows from the nearly six 
hundred closely printed pages from which I had to choose. 

It is difficult to tell whether Tholuck's poetry or prose is 
the more helpful. Almost every chapter in his volume is 
begun and ended with a little poem, which is a gem in itself. 
I have room to quote in this connection but two or three, but 
perhaps they will send my readers to the mine from which 
they came. Here is the fore-word of a chapter in regard to 
choosing God and his will, rather than one's own : — 

" 'I am so sad and care-oppressed ! ' 
My friend, I well believe 't is true ; 
/ should be quite as much distressed, 
Had I as many lords as you. 
Lightning and hail, and fire and storms, 
Cattle and neighbors, fowl and worms, 
Of monarchs what a train ! 
For me I have one only Lord, 
And all that host fulfil his word, 
As body-guards the king obey ; 
And so I cast my cares away." 

Above all does Tholuck speak to those who desire to come 
into the immediate presence of God. Every meditation takes 
one into the audience-chamber of the King. More than any 
other author whom I know does he seem to talk with God, 
and to reveal God to man. He opens the door into the 
infinite, and through the open door we see God only. God 



THO LUCK'S HOURS OF DEVOTION. II 

in the face of Jesus Christ, God in providence, God in his 
Word, God in his world, but always God. 

As we read and meditate with the upward glancing eye of 
faith, there will come to us, I believe, emotions that must 
have thrilled the author when he wrote, emotions of joy, and 
confidence, and complete rest in the omnipotent One. 

" What means this throbbing at my heart, 
So blissful and so new, 
As if there were some open part, 
And heaven were breaking through ? 
'T is even so ; close not the door, 
And a whole ocean in will pour." 

As the reader in the Quiet Hour feels this " throbbing at 
his heart," as he realizes that heaven is indeed " breaking 
through," and that the Morning Watch is as the door of 
heaven to him, may he be able fully to say with the heavenly- 
minded Tholuck : — 

" God is the fountain at which I drink, 
God is the ocean in which I sink ; 
I gaze o'er the main, but no shore descry ; 
And helpless and feeble, alas ! am I. 

" What then? Would I measure the flood immense? 
No ; losing of self all thought and sense, 
Undaunted the awful deep I brave, 
And sink, and dissolve, like a drop in the wave. 

" Thy thought, like thy measureless being, no line 
Can fathom, nor term nor bound confine. 
Yet I feel no dread, for I think with delight 
That thy love is as vast and as infinite." 

Francis E. Clark 




Jftrat Dag 13 



THE CENTRE OF MAN'S BEING. 

i ESUS, my Lord, truly dost thou say that 
souls which, like Martha, labor only for this 
world's meat, are careful and troubled about 
many things, and that the better part is that 
which Mary chose; for, since I began to hunger for the 
meat of heaven, my carefulness and trouble are greatly 
subdued, and now are always mingled with some sense 
of peace ; whereas before, so long as I strove after earthly 
blessings and earthly wisdom alone, I was never free 
from restlessness and disquiet. But to the violent, who, 
with sword in hand, would make a conquest of thee, thou 
never yieldest. They only find who seek thee with child- 
like hearts. The millions of sunbeams that warm and 
cherish us come all of them at once, but all so softly 
and silently down ; and even so dost thou desire to be 
sought, — earnestly, indeed, but not with hot and bois- 
terous haste. Dear Lord ! when Mary took her place 
at thy feet, thou didst sit down beside her ; and to every 
soul that longs after thee thou wilt do the same. Thy 
only wish is to see us all at thy feet like her. From the 
silence that reigns in thy school, I used to think that life 
in a manner ceased when love to thee began ; and, be- 
hold, I have found that " in loving thee I first began to 
live." So long as I was out of the centre I roved around 
the whole circumference of creation, and had no rest. I 
found the centre in finding God, and I need to wander 
about for rest no more. 




14 SeconO Bag 



THE HIDDEN MANNA. 

LIGHT in the centre illumines the whole 
circumference ; and even so, when there is 
grace in the heart, it radiates its bright- 
ness upon all man's outward employments. 
Martha then performs her service, but she does it with 
the mind of Mary. Holy Jesus ! doubtless thy labor 
in the shop of Joseph was as much a worship as thy 
prayers in the temple. It was ever thy meat to do thy 
heavenly Father's will, and with this hidden manna 
thou wert regaled even when standing at the carpen- 
ter's bench. And the same hidden manna shall also 
be my food, whether in my workshop or at my desk, 
whether laboring in the fields or walking in the streets. 

In every work, however mean, 
Some touch of heaven we trace, 
If but the heart within have felt 

The influence of grace. 
And art and skill, beneath love's ray, 
Their choicest flowers and fruits display. 

O Lord, rich in grace, when thou takest possession of 
the heart, how beautifully all the natural talents thou 
hast lent us expand ! Beneath the sunny influence of 
thy love even our secular employments thrive and pros- 
per. O, if they but knew, how would the men who only 
strive for success in temporal affairs take to heart what 
thy word avers, that "godliness is profitable unto all 
things, having promise of the life that now is, and of 
that which is to come " ! 




Gbirfc S>a£ 15 



THE BEST MOMENT. 

•HAT a moment is that in which a man for 
the first time .hears and fully believes the 
Saviour's words, " Thy sins are forgiven 
thee " ! Among all by whom it has been 
experienced, who has a tongue sufficiently eloquent to 
describe it to those to whom it is unknown? It is an 
exaltation, it is an abasement, and, at the same time, in 
both, a blessedness with which no other state can com- 
pare. Ye full and self-satisfied souls, would that you 
but knew the full import of the word "grace," — grace 
without desert ! 

Never has so mighty & flood ol inward strength caught 
and borne me along on its wave as in those hours when, 
kneeling in the silence of my closet, I felt the Saviour's 
hand upon my head ; and, as the best recompense of my 
tears, heard him say : — 

From all thy sins I thee absolve. 

Look on me, and believe and rise, my son ; 

Be of good cheer, gird up thy loins, and run. 

Yes ; though before I had only crept, in that hour 
I obtained strength to run. Grasping his hand, the 
beloved hand that blessed me, I vowed this vow in 
his presence: — 

Yes, Saviour, both my hands I give 

To seal the promise I renew ; 
I '11 love thee only while I live, 

And only live to serve thee, too. 




1 6 tfouttb 2>aE 



THE EVERLASTING LOVE. 

|HOU hast loved me with an everlasting 
love," for thy love is older than my life. 
Thou didst love me before I existed, for it 
was because thou didst love me that I now 
exist. Before the world was created thou didst call 
me by name, and thou didst create the world with an 
eye to me, the poorest of thy children, in order that, 
along with all the millions who at my side advance to 
the goal of consummation, I, too, might find a path to 
conduct me to the same. 

O, what confidence, what fortitude, what magnanimity, 
are inspired by the thought that I, too, was thought of 
in this world of God, and that for me, among the rest, 
it was prepared ! Brave and determined does the sol- 
dier enter the conflict, when he knows for certain that 
the general whose eye surveys the field has reckoned 
upon him also being at his post. Even though he fall, 
he knows he is in his right place. Like him, I, too, 
know that He whose eye of affection overlooks the uni- 
verse has assigned to me my station, and traced out for 
me my path. Onward I march through perpetual 
vicissitudes of brightness and gloom, and the issue is 
as yet hidden from my view. But the eye that knows 
no change beholds it from eternity to eternity in a light 
that is ever the same. 




jffftb 5>a£ 17 



DREAMERS AND SEERS. 

,HENCE comes this certainty and confi- 
dence ? It cannot have its source in the 
sublunary world, and must be a testimony 
vouchsafed by God to the soul. Let there 
be but a grain of such inward faith, and it will remove 
mountains of appetites and lusts, and extirpate the pas- 
sions most deeply rooted in the heart. Yes, a single 
grain of such faith makes the entire domain of visible 
things transparent to us. We see through them all, and 
taste through them all, the powers of the invisible 
world to come. That " in him we live, and move, and 
have our being," becomes a reality to the believer ; and 
the words of the Lord, " I am a God at hand, and not 
afar off," a matter of experience. He scents the breath 
of the Divine Being whether he walks forth into the 
garden of nature, or mixes in the society of men, or 
remains in the solitude of his closet. We need not 
wonder that the generality look upon the believer as 
a fool and a dreamer who lives in a world of his own, 
instead of that which is common to the race. And yet 
the reverse is the case. They are the dreamers. It is 
they who live in a world of their own ; for so long as the 
breath of God is not everywhere traced and felt here 
below, what is the world but the vain and unsubstantial 
fabric of a dream ? No, it is we who are awake ; we 
who now in time already experience eternity, and in the 
present world taste the powers of that which is to come. 




1 8 Si£tb 2>ag 



HOW GOD SPEAKS. 

j HERE are preachers in the firmament 
above, preachers in the earth below, 
preachers within us and preachers with- 
out. What a sermon it is which the 
firmament of heaven alone preaches to us, — the sky, 
whether azure and serene, or overcast with stormy 
clouds ! The heaven, with its marvels, declares the 
glory of God by the magnificence of day as well as 
by the magnificence of night. 

But do many listen ? Can it be denied that until God 
speaks to his heart within, man cannot comprehend the 
language he utters from everything about and above 
and beneath him ? How beautiful to this effect the 
words of Tauler ! " He who gazes long at the sun 
sees a sun impressed on every object to which he after- 
wards turns his eye ; and it is the same with him who is 
much occupied with the contemplation of God." There 
are hours when we can stand in the bosom of nature 
and feel as if we were in a church, and a fresh dox- 
ology were gushing from every breast, so that we cannot 
choose but join the hymn, and are caught and borne 
along by the general flood of devotion. At other times 
again, how dumb and speechless the creatures around 
us seem all to be, as if every one of them must needs 
pursue its way alone without the guidance of a heavenly 
hand ! The difference depends upon whether God 
speaks within us or not. 

Open thy heart to God ; if he be there, 

The outspread world will be thy book of prayer. 




Seventh Das 19 



GOD'S BITTER CUP. 

?LAS ! it is no easy task to exercise a truly 
Christian faith in the Omnipotent. How 
clearly the unbelief of my heart reveals 
itself afresh whenever God is pleased to 
beset my path with thorns ! We know and repeat to 
ourselves a thousand times, that, as the eternal wisdom, 
justice, and love is likewise omnipotence, it is able at 
every moment to execute what it wills. But notwith- 
standing, how hard we find it to believe that it is 
the will of God which calls us to suffer not less 
than when it calls us to act! We nourish the de- 
lusion that it is only the act lying behind the suffering, 
the freedom behind the fetter, which God wills, and not 
the suffering and the fetter, too. These, we fancy, have 
been interposed by some foreign hand; and in this 
manner we forego the blessing which the Lord intends 
afflictions and restraints and hindrances to convey. 
The idea that the divine omnipotence removes distress 
is one on which every man broods far longer than upon 
the thought that it is also divine omnipotence that in- 
flicts it, and that there must have been as good grounds 
for sending as for mending it. Men are always saying, 
" God will soon make it well again." Why do they 
not as often say, " It was God who made it what it is " ? 

Think not that some/^ the burden came, 
And all you owe to God is strength to bear it. 

The cross, the curb, are his because the same 
Almighty power must will who could repair it. 

Seek then, my child, thy Father's mind to know 
In what befalls thee, be it weal or woe. 



20 



JSigbtb Sag 




GOD GREAT IN LITTLE. 

SlE must be great in what is little as well as in 
what is large. 



The daisy on the mountain sod, 
Withdrawn from human view, 

Was planted by the hand of God, 
The hand that fashioned you. 

That flower his care protects whose call 

Did countless worlds create ; 
By condescending to the small, 

He proves that he is great. 

I will not. then, try to measure the eternal by the 
standard of my own little eye ; and although, amidst 
the conflict of the forces and beings in the world, my 
ear has not as yet been opened to catch that harmony 
in which they all join, I yet will not dispute that it 
exists. I figure to myself a deaf man suddenly and for 
the first time brought within sight of a great orchestra, 
and observing the busy movements of the hands and 
feet, and the sweat upon the faces of the musicians, 
and all for nothing, and I reflect how absurd it would 
appear to him. We men occupy the same position 
with respect to the universe. O, when I shall one day 
know him even as I am known, and perceive through 
the vast creation the measure, number, and weight 
according to which all things are ordered, and how 
the least of them is connected and in concord with the 
greatest, what a blessed harmony it will be, and how 
it will regale my soul through all eternity ! 




IRtntb S>a£ 21 



GOD'S ANOINTING. 

>ES, only let God be mine, and let his pres- 
ence refresh my soul, and I can be joyful in 
the face of all enemies. How a true and 
heartfelt sense of the nearness of God can 
often make us unspeakably calm and patient, even when 
our adversaries are raging most fiercely around! 
Seasons like these are hours of tuition which God 
gives to man, and the lessons which we then learn are 
never forgotten in all our future life. We then feel so 
independent of the world and of all the creatures, and 
as if we stood loose from everything else, and were 
solely in the hand of our God. Thus stood the 
Saviour before his judge when he answered him, 
" Thou couldst have no power at all against me 
except it were given thee from above." According to 
the Psalmist's description, a man is then as if he were 
sitting at a well-furnished board, his head anointed 
with oil, and drinking cup after cup of the peace 
of God, while his enemies are toiling and raging 
around him. Or, as Luther says of himself, " that 
amidst their noise and tumult he, in the name of his 
God, sat still and sung his hymn." The world cannot 
understand such resignation, and is often exasperated by 
it ; but sometimes also its hostility is thereby softened. 
And how true, likewise, are the Psalmist's words 
with reference to inward adversaries ! Even in our 
bosoms storms may rage, and yet in the face of all 
enemies the cup of consolation is rilled for us to the brim. 
There is a host of foes in the believer's breast, but there 
is also a strong tower to which he can flee for refuge. 




22 Gentb 5>afi 



BEWARE OF EXCUSES. 

|\OW deep a seat do certain bosom sins 
acquire, which, although they seem only 
something isolated, — such, perchance, as 
impatience, self-will, want of order and 
punctuality, vanity, — still, if permitted to grow un- 
checked, threaten extinction to the infant life of the 
new man ! The whole strength of the vine may run 
into two or three shoots, and make it unfruitful. A 
godly man has made the remark that by deliberately 
yielding to even one fault we subvert the whole fabric 
of Christianity, and that to do so is as when a master 
suffers a single rafter of his house to fall into decay. 
Now this is a matter in respect of which many Christians 
are under a delusion. We are less clear-sighted to our 
own darling sins than others are, who yet dare not tell 
them to us. And so many live on from day to day, the 
rafter all the while becoming more and more frail. The 
thought of this will sometimes suggest itself, and con- 
science begin gently to knock. But how quickly do a 
host of excuses, like the officious menials of some des- 
potic lord, present themselves and exclaim, " Who knocks 
there ? Silence ! " and all is quiet again. There is no 
task so hard as for a man to take arms against himself. 
Beware, then, of excuses. They perform the part of 
sponsors at the baptisms of the devil. 

Far-stretched pretexts and reasonings 
Are fickle and deceptive things : 
Give to thy soul's monition heed ; 
Who spares himself will not succeed. 




JElcvcntb 2>as 23 



HE SICK -CHAMBER A TEMPLE. 

CAN say with truth that many a sick-bed 
has been to me as a house of worship, and 
many a sick-chamber as a holy temple. As 
I lay in silence and inquired of the Lord, 
" What dost thou say ? " I obtained an answer and 
always such a one as showed that, however terrible his 
frowns, there was a loving heart concealed behind. 
Usually it was some vain imagination, some high 
thought, which the heavenly Husbandman had in his 
eye ; and so I was enabled to hold a sacred colloquy 
with him, and my soul was at peace. In truth, a sick- 
bed is generally the place where the blessing of the 
Christian faith becomes specially manifest. While in 
the heart of a child of the world sickness breeds ob- 
stinacy, pride, and discontent, and so eventually, when 
it has passed away, leaves no fruit, the contrary happens 
with the child of God. In his hours of languishing the 
mysteries of God's love and the unsearchable depths of 
his wisdom are properly disclosed. Such a silent sick- 
room sets a man once more loose from the world and its 
attachments, and from all courtship of human favor and 
human praise, and sends him back into life with a new 
and single eye. 

Alas ! I am conscious to myself how suddenly and 
deceitfully self-love can creep back into a heart which 
has been sanctified by faith ; therefore it is that I fer- 
vently pray, " Keep me in safety, O Lord, and let not 
my last state be worse than my first. Behold I myself 
implore of thee to humble me." 




24 Gwelftb Da£ 



ONE WITH CHRIST. 

)EFORE I had learned the nature of grace, 
I paused at this saying of the apostle, " I 
live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me ; " and 
I asked myself, What strange fancy of the 
Jewish rabbi is this ? Does he really imagine that the 
Messias, who has been exalted to heaven, is now living 
in him ? Yet true it is, that he who ascended up on 
high, and sitteth on the right hand of the Father, did 
likewise continue to abide with his followers upon earth, 
and has become the life of their life. Nor is this 
merely as when we say to a friend, " I still have thee in 
my heart," meaning thereby, " in my remembrance " ; 
for, if it were so, how could the Saviour have told his 
disciples, " I go away, and come again unto you " ? Or 
how could he have prayed " that they all may be one ; 
as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also 
may be one in us ; that the world may believe that thou 
hast sent me ; and the glory which thou gavest me I 
have given them, that they may be one, even as we are 
one " ? Could he have said, " Where two or three are 
met together in my name, there am I in the midst of 
them," if the phrase " in my name " signified nothing 
• more than " in remembrance of me " ? No doubt, to 
remember the Lord is to stretch out a hand toward 
him. But the Lord rriust fill it. And this is done when, 
along with the Father, he takes up his abode with his 
children ; when in his glorified humanity he draws near 
to the souls which seek him ; and, finally, when in the 
celebration of the holy sacrament he makes them par- 
take of and feed upon him. 




Gbttteentb 2>a£ 25 



THE CURE OF SELF-CONCEIT. 

HE clearer the Christian's recognition of his 
union with the Lord, the more freely can he 
speak of what the Lord has enabled him to 
accomplish, be the things ever so great. 

'T was grace that did it all, he says, 
And claims not for himself the praise. 

He who still hesitates to speak of his own works 
shows thereby that in what he does he thinks too much 
about himself ; whereas the man who is firmly rooted in 
the article of grace, and who constantly bears about 
with him the consciousness of being one of the Lord's 
members, relates only the doings of the Lord when he 
is relating his own. Would a child have any sense of 
self-conceit when telling with a light heart all the fine 
things which he had purchased with the money given 
him by his father? There is a passage in which the 
apostle Paul avers, " I would not dare to speak of any 
of those things, if Christ had not wrought them by me, 
to make the Gentiles obedient by word and deed." x He 
did not hesitate, as many scrupulous people do, to say 
great things of himself, and bluntly avers, " I labored 
more abundantly than they all." To this, however, he 
appends in plain terms, " Yet not I, but the grace of 
God that was with me." And no doubt upon every 
occasion of his boasting the same idea was present to 
his mind. The rule, however, is, that the soul does not 
usually think much of its own work, unless it happen 
that some one calls it to account, or refuses to pay due 
honor to the work of God within us. 

1 Rom. 15 : 18, Luther's version. 




26 jfourteentb 2>a£ 



GOD'S WORK AND OURS. 

^HOU encouragest us by thy Word, saying, 
" Work out your own salvation with fear and 
trembling, for it is God who worketh in you 
both to will and to do of his good pleasure." 
How wonderfully in this text hast thou interwoven thy 
work with ours ! With so holy earnestness dost thou 
enjoin us to work out our own salvation, that we expect 
nothing else than to be told that the power both to will 
and to do it is in our own hand. But no ; rather dost 
thou incite us to work by the thought that both our will- 
ing and doing proceed from thee. And in this, O heav- 
enly wisdom, I understand thy purpose. O, how much 
holier men would be if they would but receive with fear 
and trembling the yearnings and impulses in their bos- 
oms, as if these were the heralds of a mighty monarch 
who brings a blessing with him where he is welcomed, 
but where he is repulsed leaves behind him a curse ! 
The longing of a human soul after thee is thy boon; 
and when a mortal spirit yearns for God, it is a proof 
that God has already yearned for it. Even an Eastern 
poet could say : — 

" Each * Lord, appear,' thy lips pronounce, contains my ' Here 

ami' — 
A special messenger I send, veiled in thine every sigh ; 
Thy love is but a girdle of the love I bear to thee, 
And sleeping in thy ' Come, O Lord,' there lies * Here, son,' 

from me." 




Jfitteentb Bag 27 



THE SACREDNESS OF SOLITUDE. 

GOD, how sacred to me were the hours 
which I spent in solitude with thee ! My 
soul emerged from them as if from a bath. 
During its daily avocations, life with its mul- 
titudinous sounds rushes past like a roaring waterfall, 
deafening our ears so that we cannot understand our- 
selves, nor even God, when he speaks to us. How dif- 
ferently do all things appear, how different we appear to 
ourselves, when, after the bustle of the day, sacred and 
silent night has crept on ! Then do voices within and 
around us, which before found no articulate words, 
begin to speak. Often, however, these voices are pain- 
ful to the hearer, and therefore it is that he flies from 
hours of solitude. But shut not thine ears, dear reader : 
among them there is many a voice that calls thee home, 
and such a voice is always sad. But wilt thou, for no 
better reason than merely to spare thyself a touch of 
homesickness, try to forget in this far country that thou 
hast a home elsewhere ? That is not wise, for so a time 
will come when even at home thou wilt appear a 
stranger. Seek to be alone with thyself. Every season 
of solitude is as a silent night, in which, when the din of 
this world dies away, boding voices from another begin 
to sound. 




28 Sixteentb ®a$ 



CONVERSING WITH GOD. 

[N a house in which the mortar was dropping 
from the walls, and the rafters were begin- 
ning to break, there lived a man who was so 
deeply absorbed in his business that to one 
of his friends who sought to speak with him alone in 
order to warn him of his danger, he answered, " I have 
no time." Thou laughest at his folly, but thou art thy- 
self the fool. Believe me, dear reader, unconscious of 
it although thou art, thy business is more important to 
thee than thyself ; for otherwise how couldst thou de- 
cline when the voice of thy heavenly Friend bids thee 
retire with him, that he may inform thee about thyself 
and thine earthly tabernacle ? Thou hast a certain feel- 
ing, though thou wilt not own it to thyself, that thou art 
not well, and yet thou shunnest so much as even an 
interview with thy Physician. Can that help thee? 
No ; it helps thee nothing. Poor blinded man ! From 
the loud tumult of life thou wilt be hurried unexpectedly 
away, and then thou wilt be brought into a solitude 
where the voices from which thou didst here endeavor 
to escape must of necessity be heard. Here they were 
the voices of a friend; there they will be the voice of 
thy Judge. 

To thy soul's inmost shrine repair, 

And there with God converse and dwell ; 

To him that knows that palace fair 
The world will seem a prison cell. 




5ev>enteentb 2>a£ 29 



THE JOY OF RECONCILIATION. 

CONSIDER, O my soul, how great an honor 
thou contemnest in order to pursue a paltry 
enjoyment. Thou hastenest in all directions 
to visit men; and thy God is waiting for 
thee within, and thou permittest him to wait. Thou 
wouldst shun this most honorable of interviews far less, 
hadst thou but experienced the kindness and condescen- 
sion with which on such occasions he communes with 
the soul. No doubt he has many things with which to 
upbraid it, but he upbraids with such gentleness and 
patience that all one can do is silently to weep tears of 
shame. On the other hand, he has likewise so many 
blessed things to tell the soul about its native land and 
home and the thoughts of peace which he cherishes on 
our behalf, and intends in the future to carry into effect, 
that it is good to be with him. Thou imaginest that he 
comes only to judge and punish, and knowest not that 
he comes also to pardon and to save, and that at every 
such absolution a festival is celebrated in the inmost 
recess of the soul, on which even the angels of heaven 
look down with delight. 

A feast of joy that never ends 

Is theirs whom Jesus deigns to own, 

Gives them his peace, and calls his friends, 
And to them all his grace makes known. 




30 Btebteentb 2>a£ 



WHAT IS PRAYER? 

THOU sweet light of love, shine into my 
heart, so that even now in this poor life 
I may often celebrate with thee a peaceful 
Sabbath, and enjoy thy company in the 
fellowship of eternity. 

'T was once my way to set apart 

Both place and time for secret prayer ; 

Now pray I always in my heart, 
And am alone though anywhere. 

This is what the apostle means when he admonishes 
us to pray without ceasing, and in such prayers all words 
and brisk emotions of the heart are for the time in sus- 
pense. Such prayers issue calmly forth, being in this 
respect like the solar light, whose approach we cannot 
hear, but which is yet accompanied by a warmth that 
testifies its presence. Yes, there is a deep, hidden col- 
loquy of holy souls with God, which never ceases any 
more than does the beating of the pulse in a living man. 
It consists in an inward tending and aspiring of the soul 
toward its Source, and, although calm and silent, it 
influences and governs all the thoughts and volitions of 
him in whom it takes place. There are instances of the 
earth sending up from its lowest depths a tepid breath, 
scarcely perceptible to our senses, but which permeates 
the waters upon its surface, and impregnates them with 
medicinal virtues. And it is even so with the prayer 
peculiar to the man of piety ; it hinders him in none of 
his avocations; rather, where it obtains, do these all 
thrive and prosper. 




Iftineteentb B>ag 3 1 



THE SECRET OF PRAYER. 

'HAT a noble pattern might not St. Paul have 
been to me ! At the time when thou wert 
laying the foundation stone of thy church, 
he had beheld thine arm visibly stretched 
forth from heaven. He had had actual experience that 
at thy nod the earth quaked and the fetters that bound 
thy servants broke asunder. Although, however, he 
had in many ways actually seen the working of thy 
miraculous hand, yet never once did he crave from thee 
its help. For two long years he wore his chains in the 
prison of Caesarea, and in that of Rome for even a still 
longer period, and yet we do not read of his ever having 
either asked or expected of thee to work a miracle for 
his release. In complete resignation, he left it for the 
Lord to determine whether he was to depart this life or 
to abide in the flesh, and whether he was to visit the 
brethren in the imperial city, or to have that desire of 
his heart unfulfilled. 

And by the light which thou givest me, O my Lord, I 
also can now interpret the promises of thy word in but 
one sense, which is this, that the great object for which 
thy true disciples will ever pray is that thy kingdom 
may come ; and therefore that they will set their heart 
upon nothing, except in so far as they consider it the 
means by which that object may be promoted. 




32 Gwenttetb 2>a£ 



THE TEMPTATION OF MIRACLE- 
WORKING. 

| HEN I reflect how great would be the tempta- 
tion if such as I possessed, like Peter, the 
power of saying to the lame, " Rise up and 
walk," or like Paul to the evil spirits, " I 
command thee to come out of her," I am afraid. And 
yet to pray with success, in a special case of need, is 
likewise a miracle. I am still, O Lord, in the lowest 
class of thy school, and for one who has never yet learned 
rightly to believe in many of the manifest miracles of thy 
grace, the power to work miracles would be an unsuit- 
able gift. If perchance it shall ever happen that I am 
deemed worthy of so great a distinction, it will only be 
when I shall have learned to pray wholly in thy name. 
And this I shall never learn until I have fully sacrificed 
to thee all will of my own. For the present, dear Mas- 
ter, my prayer shall be : — 

Grant me the wonders of thy grace 

In every day's events to see ; 
Thou meetest me in all my ways, — 

O that I sought to meet with thee ! 

Better to trust thy hand of might, 

Even when by sable clouds concealed, 

Than own it when, to sense and sight, 
Stretched forth from heaven, it stands 
revealed. 

O help me then by faith to live, 
The faith that to the unseen cleaves, 

Sure that eternity will give 
Vision to him who here believes. 




Gwent^first Dais 33 



THE SCHOOL OF PATIENCE. 

|N truth, from no scrutiny of the heart, how- 
ever deep it may go, can we ascertain that 
we do believe. It is only trial that can 
teach us this. In the parable of the sower 
we are told that not till " the sun was up " was it dis- 
covered that the seed had no root; and it is even so 
with faith. No man can know whether that noble 
plant has struck its roots in the better world, until the 
sun of tribulation has risen and shot down its scorching 
rays upon his head. Patience must have had her per- 
fect work, must have endured unto the end, before all 
the fair virtues, which James calls fruits of the wisdom 
from above, can appear in the Christian's character, 
making him " pure, peaceable, gentle, and easy to be 
entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partial- 
ity, and without hypocrisy." I find in all Christians 
who have passed through much tribulation a certain 
quality of ripeness, which I am of opinion can be 
acquired in no other school. Just as a certain degree 
of solar heat is necessary to bring the finest sorts of 
fruit to perfection, so is the fiery trial indispensable for 
ripening the inner man. Claudius calls the Christian 
who has been subjected to it " the man with the moon- 
beam on his face." It is night that gives their brilliancy 
to the stars ; and in like manner the night of adversity 
spreads over the countenance of the Christian who has 
endured it a strange cast, which bespeaks itself to be 
of the other world, and enforces reverence. 




34 Gwents*seconD 2>as 



THE PRUNING -KNIFE. 

jF all the suckers on his vine, there are none 
which the heavenly Husbandman endeavors 
with so intent an aim to prune away as 
those of pride, for he knows that into them 
the whole strength of the stock is most apt to run, 
wasting the generous sap, and thereby marring the 
goodly fruit. And hence the more the wilful heart 
rebels under the first little cross, and attempts to shake 
it off, the sooner does the Lord impose a second and 
then a third, until the lesson of submission has been 
learned. It is a beautiful rule which a pious servant of 
God has given us in the following words : — 

" If sickness, want, or dire mischance 
Are down upon thee poured, 
Fall on thy knees, and ask at once, 
What means thy message, Lord ? 

" And if, my child, thou humbly take 
His answer to thy heart, 
Be sure that he will quickly make 
Thy troubles all depart." 

If the soul in such a case inquires uprightly, it will 
not tarry long for an answer. An answer is generally 
given, and comes in clear and intelligible terms. And 
what is its drift? In nine cases out of ten it is at some 
devil of pride which has crept into the heart that the 
rod of God has been aimed. 




Gwent£=tbtr& 2>a£ 35 



HOW TO KNOW GOD'S WILL. 

IN my opinion, there are two things which 
ought to be taken to heart by those who 
desire to know the will of God aright, in 
order in all things to serve him alone. In 
the first place, it seems to me important that when we 
are in doubt and enter our closets to inquire of him, we 
should go with an undistracted heart, and be silent 
before him. " Come and bow down," must thou say 
to thyself, and bring before the face of the Omnipresent 
thy heart in a calm and gentle frame, with no bias 
either to the right hand or the left. 

Enter thy closet, man, for there the sun of grace shines 
bright, 

And there God opens wide his heart, to give life, joy, and 
light. 

You only intercept the rays by word or act of thine, 

Even to thy thought and will give pause, and wait the im- 
pulse divine ; 

Let all within thee for the time be hushed in calm repose ; 

'T is on the lake's unruffled breast the sun its image throws. 

If at the time of prayer thy heart be thus a placid 
mirror, then for certain the answer to thy petitions will 
not come from thyself; thou wilt receive it from the 
Master. 

In the second place, it is by "use" alone that we 
acquire " senses exercised to discern good and evil," 
and hence our rule must be to draw from God's word 
more and more deeply every day. No tree falls at the 
first stroke, and " to him that hath shall be given." 




36 GwentE*fouttb 2>aE 



THE BEAUTY OF HUMILITY. 

gE need do nothing but begin comparing our- 
selves with others, and pride instantly makes 
its appearance afresh. The apostle says, 
"Let every man prove his own work, and 
then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not 
in another." There can be no doubt that the reason 
why our Saviour was so fond of children was that 
they are without self-conceit. When his disciples in- 
quired which of them would be greatest in the king- 
dom of heaven, he called a little child unto him, and 
set him in the midst of them, and said : " Verily I say 
unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little 
children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. 
Whosoever, therefore, shall humble himself as this little 
child, the same is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven." 
The child does not compare, exercises little reflection, 
looks neither to the right nor left, and the son of a king 
will play with a beggar's boy without thinking of his 
dignity at all. Now the longer a man frequents the 
school of Jesus, the more he learns to keep in his own 
path, to commit to the Lord, whose servants they are, 
the task of pronouncing judgment upon others, to ab- 
stain from all comparisons, and to go with his burden 
to the Lord in prayer. How beautiful it is to see true 
Christian humility gladdening the eyes of all others, but 
unconscious of its own brightness! In fact, what 
lovelier spectacle can be presented to the view of men 
or angels than a disciple of Jesus ever employed in 
covering the glowing embers of charity beneath the 
ashes of self-abasement ? 




Gwent£*fiftb S>a£ 37 



THE GOVERNMENT OF OUR LIVES. 

MUST come to a clear decision of the 
question, Who is to have the government of 
my life ? Alas ! I have hitherto had too 
many masters, and not one supreme ; for 
how can I affirm that any one is my master whose com- 
mandments are not the rule by which I walk ? Every 
morning we ought afresh calmly and clearly to deter- 
mine who our rightful master is, and then tttrn our back 
to the world, and our face to Christ. Unless we have 
firmly and unalterably resolved on this, it will from time 
to time happen, that when the world issues its command 
on the right hand and Christ his on the left, we will 
sometimes hold to the one master and despise the 
other. In nothing have I experienced the truth of this 
so much as in the matter of men-pleasing. It is amaz- 
ing how much our thoughts and purposes and whole 
position depend upon our fellow men. Even the influ- 
ence that the place and time at which we happen to live 
exerts upon our opinions and acts, is ultimately deter- 
mined by some particular person. When, for example, 
I figure myself residing in another neighborhood, and 
among other influential people, I have the conviction 
that then many things would appear to me in a very 
different light from that in which I see them now. 
Does not much of the disquietude of the soul originate 
in the circumstance that, instead of seeking to please 
one, we seek to please many ? In this way we become 
too external, and the quiet and sacred fire, which ought 
ever to burn for God upon the altar of the heart, is 
extinguished. 




38 GwentB*sl£tb Dag 



A CHRISTIAN'S RIGHTS. 

CHRISTIAN humility will not throw herself 
away, and never appear but in the guise of 
a miserable sinner; because He in whose 
school we have all been made miserable 
sinners has likewise made us children of God, — in 
the exercise of free grace, no doubt, and not for the 
merit of our works, that no flesh may boast. Christian 
humility will not throw itself away because occasions 
may come which require a Christian to avouch and vin- 
dicate both what and how much grace has been be- 
stowed upon him. Not in vain has it been recorded 
that St. Paul asserted his right to the privileges of a 
Roman citizen ; and as members of Christ and subjects 
of his kingdom we also have rights and prerogatives. 
Generally, indeed, the humble disciple of Jesus walks 
through life with a bent rather than with an uplifted head, 
like a tree loaded with fruit. When the occasion emerges, 
however, he, too, can hold his head up like others. He 
does not, indeed, either say or sing much about the gifts 
and graces he has received, just as full vessels differ 
from empty ones by the feebler sound which they emit. 
But where the case calls for it, he also can cheerfully 
sing and play, not indeed to his own, but to his Master's, 
glory. Under the purifying influence of the Spirit of 
Christ, we reach a point at which in childlike simplicity 
we can be conscious of, and are able also, if need be, to 
assert, the gifts we have received. 




TLwentv*8ex>entb 2>a£ 39 



GODLIKE TRUTH. 

'OES God ever pretend to be other than he 
is ? Are not all his ways truth ? God 
himself is truth, and he who sins against 
truth sins against God. That is enough to 
make the word of truth sacred to me. I need none of 
the arguments which others allege, such as that our 
Maker has given speech to man in order that it might be 
the picture of his thought, and that therefore lying is a 
sin against the purpose of God and the use for which 
speech was destined ; that it is an abuse of confidence 
towards our neighbor. These arguments may be good 
in their place. Enough for me to say with David, " O 
Lord, thou art God, and thy words be true " ; and, being 
the servant of the Lord, I will walk on no other path 
but his. Moreover, I see what becomes of those who 
try to bargain for an abatement of the truth. The stone 
cannot be stopped which has once begun to roll down 
the hill, and one lie produces seven. If you are to con- 
sider good reasons a sufficient excuse for passing off a 
lie, ah me ! how cheap these are, especially when fur- 
nished by a wicked heart ! I never saw a thief use his 
light fingers who had not good reasons to plead for 
doing so, although the only true one might have been 
that his fingers itched. Let the conscience have become 
so relaxed as to sell its consent for what are called good 
reasons, and I know of nothing which it will not sell. 
Rather will I say with the poet : — 

" The conscience which men pliant call, 
Is much the same as none at all." 




4° Zwenty*eiQbtb 2>a£ 



THE TRIVIAL ROUND. 

,HE better and more serviceable the articles 
are which one Christian furnishes to another, 
the wholesomer the bread which the baker 
bakes, the more firmly the architect lays the 
foundation of the house which he builds, the more expe- 
ditiously and largely the merchant procures the com- 
modities of other countries for the use and benefit of 
his own, — the more in such external services will a 
regard for the welfare, and a desire in all respects to 
consult the interests, of his brother be manifested. 
If all this spring from a desire to serve God and his 
neighbor, his daily work will be a work of Christian 
charity, and he will no longer require to wait for special 
and select occasions to exercise that virture. Luther has 
said that a married wife ought to be convinced that in 
her position the suckling of her babe and the tending of 
her children are as certainly acceptable to God as if he 
had spoken to her, and expressly commanded her to do 
it. In like manner, the servant girl who sweeps the 
house, boils the pot, and feeds the cattle, ought to be 
firmly persuaded in her mind that she is walking accord- 
ing to the divine commandment, if in these things she 
faithfully executes the orders she has received. And 
thus ought all ranks of men to cherish the confidence 
that it is God that has allotted to them their several 
trades and occupations, and to be contented each with 
his own, however bad it may be. In that case faith 
would place all of them on a level, for God pays no re- 
gard to whether thine be mean or noble, but only to 
whether thou acceptest it as allotted to thee by him, 




HwentE*ntntb Bag 41 



DAILY TOIL A PREPARATION. 

HAVE often, and with my whole heart, 
wished to know how much of the business 
and toil of the present life will be translated 
with us into the new heaven and new earth. 
A great man has said that " all we have learned in this 
world will be of no more use to us when we depart out 
of it than the names of the streets of London." I do not 
know, however, if that be true. It may well be that we 
think too meanly of the earthly creatures, as of all sub- 
lunary things ; and that, when the dead shall rise, much 
of the business and employments which they followed 
here below will rise along with them, and take a nobler 
shape. Nay, might it not be said that, were the sweat 
wiped from the brow and sin extirpated from the heart, 
the work of earth might be a work of heaven? The 
more we contemplate them from this point of view, the 
higher the notion we will be ready to entertain of our 
pastimes here below. But for the present I agree with 
Luther, who said that, when he hung as a suckling on 
his mother's breast, little did he know what he was after- 
wards to eat or drink, or what manner of life he would 
lead ; and far less do we understand how all that will be 
in the world to come. In this matter I will patiently 
wait, like the children on Christmas Eve, who with hearts 
full of confidence and hope stand behind the door until 
the time comes for it to be opened, and the tree, with its 
hundred lights and all the appendages about and upon 
it, bursts upon their eye and fully satisfies their heart ; 
meanwhile, I will give heed to the apostle's advice, and 
" use this life as not abusing it." 




42 Zbixtlctb 5>a£ 



WHAT WE SHALL BE. 

i HERE is, in fact, an eternal centre of spirits 
emitting innumerable rays, and on some 
particular one of these does every spirit 
reach that centre. For this reason, when 
congregated there, they shall all take part in the same 
hallelujah, and yet each with a voice and a tone peculiar 
to himself. 

Almighty God, in whose hand it is to acquit or to con- 
demn, I cannot but acknowledge thy full and perfect 
right to condemn me ; and yet thou hast awarded me an 
inheritance so great that I scarcely dare for very shame 
to lift my eyes toward it. I should praise and thank thee 
through eternity, even though the place allotted me were 
on the remotest confine of thy holy land, or only at the 
threshold of thy heavenly temple. But thy word dis- 
tinctly tells me that thou wilt draw me to thy heart, that 
thou wilt seat me on thy throne, and make me a copy 
of the brightness of thy glory. O give me faith suffi- 
ciently great and powerful to grasp so inconceivable a 
promise. At such a thought how does this little earth, 
with all its mighty woe, recede far, far behind me ! 

Here dwell forever joy and light. 
The soul is clad in raiment bright 

Of spotless purity. 
Like kings we sit on thrones, and wear 
Immortal chaplets, fresh and fair, 

While changeless time rolls by. 
O happy they that day who see, 
When all and in all God shall be. 




GbirtB^first H>a£ 43 



NO MORE TEARS. 

>ND God shall wipe away all tears from 
their eyes; and there shall be no more 
death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither 
shall there be any more pain; for the 
former things are passed away." 

Here below we walk from day to day amid tears and 
want and death and sorrow and pain, and it might well 
appear as if human life could not exist without this 
bitter accompaniment; and yet every one feels in his 
inmost heart that it cannot and will not be thus forever. 
But if the word of God did not attest the fact, we could 
not venture to trust solely to the voice of the heart, for 
are not our hopes often the mere offspring of our wishes ? 
Now, however, we know it. A day will come on which by 
all to whom grace has been given to believe in the Son 
of God, the toil and tears of the past shall be remem- 
bered no more. Up then, disconsolate hearts ! whatever 
may be the burden which at present weighs you down. 
Look forward to the future, in which all sufferings shall 
be as if submerged in a mighty ocean. " Former things 
are passed away," says the voice of the prophet. The 
whole period of the world's history to which affliction 
and sorrow belonged shall lie behind us like a morning 
dream, and no remnant of it be left but that "peace- 
ful fruit of righteousness " which is the growth of 
correction. 



The Deeper Life Series* 

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Price, 23 cents each, postpaid. 



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son, and Thomas E. Murphy. 

THE INDWELLING GOD. 

Rev. Charles A. Dickinson, D. D. 

LITTLE SERMONS FOR ONE. 
Amos R. Wells. 

A FENCE OF TRUST. {Poems.) 
Mrs. Mary F. Butts. 



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SOCIAL "EVENINGS. By Amos R. Wells. This is the most 
widely used collection of games and social entertainments ever 
made. No social committee is at all well equipped without a copy. 
Invaluable also for individual use. 

SOCIAL TO SAVE. By Amos R. Wells. A companion volume 
to " Social Evenings." Everything new and fresh. A mine of 
enjoyment for the society and home circle. 

WEAPONS FOR TEMPERANCE WARFARE. By 

Belle M. Brain. Full of ammunition for temperance meetings. 
Hundreds of facts, illustrations, suggestions, bright programmes, 
quotations, statistics. Everything practical and to the point. No 
more dry temperance meetings. 

FUEL FOR MISSIONARY FIRES. By Belle M. Brain. 
115 pages. A beautiful book, packed full of practical plans for 
missionary committees. Everything tried and proved. It will 
make your missionary meetings the brightest you ever held. It 
will rouse your society to a burning interest in this greatest of all 
great endeavors,— the world for Christ. 

PRAYER-MEETING METHODS. By Amos R.Wells. This 
book contains by far the most comprehensive collection of prayer- 
meeting plans ever made. 

OUR UNIONS. By Amos R. Wells. The only book ever pub- 
lished wholly devoted to Christian Endeavor unions of all 
kinds, their officers, work, and conventions. The convention sug- 
gestions alone are worth the price of the book. 

NEXT STEPS. By Rev. W. F. McCauley. Here is a book for 
every Christian Endeavor worker. It is a storehouse of sugges- 
tions. It deals not with theories, but with practical, workable 
methods. As a statement of Christian Endeavor principles and 
methods, it is unexcelled. If you want to help some earnest work- 
ers, make them a present of this book. 

CITIZENS IN TRAINING. By Amos R. Wells. A complete 
manual of Christian Citizenship, written especially for Christian 
Endeavorers that desire to make their country better. Tells just 
what to do and how to do it. Twelve chapters. Eighty-five sep- 
arate articles and plans 



ONLY 35 CENTS EACH, POSTPAID. 



Send orders with remittance to 

United Society of Christian Endeavor, 

640 Washington Street, I 155 La Salle Strett, 

Boston, Mass. J Chicago, 111. 



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